Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Data Set Details

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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession:

BOT-GCED-2509

Research Theme:

Botany (Directed Study)

Contributors:

Christina L. Richards, Steve Pennings, Lisa Donovan

Title:

Habitat range and phenotypic variation in twelve salt marsh plants on Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA.

Abstract:

We measured traits of twelve salt marsh plant species at sites around Sapelo Island GA in August of 1999. Plant species represent six families - Asteraceae: Aster tenuifolius L., Borrichia frutescens L., Iva frutescens L.; Bataceae: Batis maritima L.; Chenopodiaceae: Salicornia bigelovii Torrey, Salicornia virginica L.; Juncaceae: Juncus roemerianus Scheele; Plumbaginaceae: Limonium carolinianum (Walter) Britton; Poaceae: Distichlis spicata (L.) Greene, Spartina alterniflora Loisel., Spartina patens (Aiton) Muhl., Sporobolus virginicus (L.) Kunth; all nomenclature follows Radford et al. (1968). Soil cores were taken adjacent to each plant to measure soil water content, porewater salinity, and organic content.

DOI:

10.6073/pasta/e4cdaf7269866a2ef369f256f2c02add

Key Words:

plant phenology, salinity, salt marshes, Sapelo Island, shoot height

LTER Core Area:

Population Studies

Research Themes:

Botany, Population Ecology

Study Period:

01-Jun-1999 to 16-Aug-1999

Study Sites:

Sapelo -- Sapelo Island, Sapelo Island, Georgia

» Download Geographic Coverage: Google Earth

Species References:

Distichlis spicata, Limonium carolinianum, Salicornia bigelovii, Salicornia depressa, Spartina patens, Sporobolus virginicus, Symphyotrichum tenuifolium

Downloads:

Data Table: BOT-GCED-2509 (Main data table for data set BOT-GCED-2509, 1057 records)

Access: Public (released 16-Sep-2025)

Metadata: Text (ESA FLED), XML (Ecological Metadata Language)

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [108.10kb], Text File [129.63kb], MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [77.83kb], MATLAB (Variables) [80.07kb], Text Report [167.56kb]

Column List:(display)

Column	Name	Units	Type	Description
1	Species	none	string	Plant species
2	Site	none	string	Study site
3	Height	cm	floating-point	Height of plant
4	Width	cm	floating-point	Width of plant
5	Depth_of_plant	cm	floating-point	Depth of plant
6	Number_of_leaves	count	integer	Number of leaves
7	Stem_width	cm	floating-point	Width of stem at soil surface
8	Third_internode	cm	floating-point	Length of the third internode
9	Serration	index	floating-point	Serration of Iva leaves index (1=smooth leaves - 4= highly serrated leaves)
10	Leaf_1_length	cm	floating-point	Length of first leaf
11	Leaf_2_length	cm	floating-point	Length of second leaf
12	Leaf_3_length	cm	floating-point	Length of third leaf
13	Leaf_1_width	cm	floating-point	Width of first leaf
14	Leaf_2_width	cm	floating-point	Width of second leaf
15	Leaf_3_width	cm	floating-point	Width of third leaf
16	Leaf_1_thickness	cm	floating-point	Thickness of first leaf
17	Leaf_2_thickness	cm	floating-point	Thickness of second leaf
18	Leaf_3_thickness	cm	floating-point	Thickness of third leaf
19	Proportion_water	proportion	floating-point	Proportion of mass of soil core represented by water
20	Salinity	PSU	floating-point	Salinity of pore water
21	Organic_content	proportion	floating-point	Organic content of dry soil
22	Relative_elevation	proportion	floating-point	Relative elevation for each species at each site

Supporting Document: BOT-GCED-2509_map (Map of sampling locations)

Access: Public (released 16-Sep-2025)

Metadata: XML (Ecological Metadata Language)

Data Formats: PDF document [325 kb]

Statistics:

Generate script code to retrieve data tables for analysis in: MATLAB, R, SAS, SPSS

Citation:

Richards, Christina L. 2025. Habitat range and phenotypic variation in twelve salt marsh plants on Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/e4cdaf7269866a2ef369f256f2c02add

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